Sea Lions Complete a Cycle of Survival

A marine center that rescues imperiled animals has seen a sharp increase in its caseload this spring. And they’re happy about it.

Officials with the Friends of the Sea Lion Marine Mammal Center say that more sea lions being rescued means that more sea lions are being born, signaling a return to normalcy after a sharp drop in reproduction after the El Nino season of 1997-98.

“When El Nino strikes, the following couple of years we get lots of adults that may have miscarriages or may not give birth,” said Michele Hunter, director of operations for Friends of Sea Lions. “Now we’re sort of getting back to normal.”

In a public event framed in several layers of symbolism, the group today plans to release Crystal, a 65-pound sea lion pup, into the ocean off Crystal Cove State Park.

The pup was rescued there in January during a news conference in which philanthropist Joan Irvine Smith announced her opposition to state plans for a luxury resort on the beach. That plan died last month after opponents persuaded the California Coastal Conservancy to buy out the private developer’s contract for $2 million.

Smith has since helped form the Crystal Cove Conservancy, which is using today’s sea lion release to draw attention to such disparate efforts as a Crystal Cove Historic District and a hoped-for education center and a tide pool preservation program.

The politics of the event, though, obscure the natural cycles that led to Crystal’s rescue in the first place.

This is pup season for sea lions, when babies are weaned from their mothers. In Darwinian fashion, those that can adapt and find food on their own survive. Those that can’t usually die.

During El Nino seasons, virtually all baby sea lions die, said Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Long Beach. A key problem is that the warmer waters caused by El Nino send the fish that sea lions feed on into the cooler depths.

“They can’t find the fish,” Cordaro said. “The females give birth to pups but can’t find enough food to produce enough milk to feed the pups, and the newborns starve to death. Usually it takes three years or so after El Nino for the population to get back to its reproductive potential.”

In non-El Nino seasons, pups can still encounter problems feeding as they strike off on their own.

Some, like Crystal, are found by humans and taken to the marine center on Laguna Canyon Road, where they are assessed and, when possible, nursed back to health. The rescues are human intervention in the cycle of nature, Hunter admitted. But then, she said, many of the stresses that lead to the rescues are man-made.

“This isn’t a pristine area any more,” Hunter said. “They get parasites and other effects of pollution. I’ve seen animals with abscesses and tumors.”

Hunter said the group this year already has taken in 38 sea mammals, mostly sea lions, which puts the group on a pace to surpass the approximately 60 sea mammals rescued in each of the last two years.

The group normally treats 100 to 120 animals a year, she said.